Saugerties car show gets motors running (video)

BRIAN HUBERT -- DAILY FREEMAN This 1957 Chevy owned by Bob page was among the vehicles on display Sunday at the Sawyers Motors Car Show in Saugerties.

SAUGERTIES >> Throngs of people gathered on Main and Partition Streets on Sunday afternoon to enjoy classic vehicle after classic vehicle at the Sawyers Motors Car show.

They came to see classics like Ed Dina’s 1913 American Fiat, which he said was built in a short-lived Fiat factory in Poughkeepsie.

“It was open from 1910 to 1918,” he said. “It was located across U.S. Route 9 from Marist (College), in the location of today’s Home Depot.”

He said he’s had the car for about eight years and, before that, he was talking to the owner in Florida about purchasing it for almost 10 years.

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“He got too old to drive, so I bought it,” Dina said. “I always thought it should be repatriated to the Hudson Valley.”

Tom and Connie Jeffers, of Margretville, showed up in 1930s period clothes to show off their 1930 Model-A. It featured a spacious painstakingly restored interior, and, on the back, thee were antique suitcases already for a motoring adventure.

“This is about as far as we driven it” he said. “We have a new transmission built inside of the original housing.”

Tom Jeffers added that the new transmission gives him six gears to work with and allows him to get up to 60-65 mph to keep up with the fast-moving traffic on state Route 28. But it still features the old six-volt electrical system, he said. “Some people change them to 12 volts, but that would require changing out all the light bulbs.”

In the parking lot of Dallas Hot Wieners at Partition and Main streets were a wide collection of 1950s ‘60s and ‘70s cars, including a 1957 Chevy police car. There was even a 1981 Silver DeLorean that made the crowds recall the popular 1980s “Back to the Future” movies.

But the star of this corner of the show was Saugerties resident Spencer Sutton’s 1970 SS Chevelle. It featured a 396-cubic-inch engine that could crank out over 300 horsepower. When asked how fast it could go Sutton simply said, “Fast enough to get you a speeding ticket.

Even folks who didn’t have cars in the show, like Saugerties resident Kris Snyder, came out to enjoy the music, the sun and cars.

David Barber, who formerly worked for show sponsor Sawyer Motors, said he really appreciates how much hard work goes into the event. “It just gets better and better each year,” he said. “The vendors are doing a great job.

“The band at Bella’s is kicking it out,” Barber added.

He said his favorite car was a small Datsun pickup with thin small wheels that makes it a true low rider. “I think it’s the color really,” he said. “It’s a beautiful color.”

But perhaps nobody appreciates the show’s success more than Boys and Girls Club of Saugerties, which is receiving all the proceeds, said Joe Fey, the club’s executive director.

“This has been awesome, between the community and Bob Siracusano owner of Sawyer Motors,” he said. “Everybody’s having a great time, it’s the most cars they ever had,”

It is that sort of support, Fey added, that the club is ecstatic about.